Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1887-01-22

T.,
ess. his social system, feudal IN its i
swept away, his people 5
without law or legal status, his com S
AIDES slain and the burdens Of Others q
leavy on his shoulders. Crushed by S
lefeat, his very traditions gone. With /
,ut money, credit, employment, mater I
81 or training-and, beside all this, |
confronted with the greatest problem
of q status for the vast
1odv OF his liberated slaves.
What does he do-this hero in gray
with heart of gold-does he sit down
IN sullenness and despair! Not for a .
day. Surely God, who had sconrged
him in his prosperity, inspired him il
hIs adversely! AS ruin was never be.
fore 80 overw helining, never was re-
storation swifter. The soldier stepped
from the trenches into the farrow;
horses that had charged federals march.
ed bsiore the plow, and fields that ran
red with human blood in April were
green with the harvest in June; wo-
men reared In luxury cut up their
dresses and made bleeches for their
and with patience and hero
ism that fits woman always as gar
ment gave their hands to work. There |
was little bitterness in all this -Cheor- \
fulness and frankness prevailed. ssRilbi
Arp struck the keynote wAap
Well, Killed as many OF tn Z. -
did of me, aud am going ~ N0kk!
Laughter and applause sioss ssse \
want to say to Gen. Sherman-whO is
all able man in our parts,
though some people think he is kind
of careless about tire-that from the
ashes left US in 1864 we have raised
brave aud beautiful city; that somehow
or other We hsye caught the sunshine
in the bricks and mortar of our homes
and have builded therein not one single
ignoble prejudice or memory.
"But what is the sum of our work2
We have found out that in the general
summing up the free negro counts
more than ne did as slave. We have
planted the school house OH hill and
made it free to white and black. We
have sown towns and cities In the place
of theories and put business above poll
tics. CApplause1. We have challenged
your spinners in Massachusetts and
your iron makers in Pennsylvania. We
have learned that $400, ,O00, 900 annually
received from our cotton crop will
make us rich; then the supplies that
make it are home raised. We have re-
duced the commercial rate of interest
from "a to 8 per cent, and are floating
per cent. bonds. We have learned
that one northern immigrant is worth
fifty foreigners. and have smoothed the
way southward, wiped out the place
where Mason and Dixon's line used to
be and hung our latch string out to you
aud yours. Prolonged applausel. We
have reached the point that marks per-
feet harmony in every household, wheH
the husband confesses that the pies
his own wife cooks are as good as those
his mother used to bake, and we admit
that the sun shines as brightly aud the
moon as softly as it did before the war.
CLaughter]. We have established
thrift iu city and country. We have
fallen In love with work. We have re-
stored comfort to homes from which
culture and elegance never departed
We have let economy take root and
spread among US as rank as the crab
grass which sprang up from Sherman''
cavalry camp, until we are ready to lay
odds on the Georgia Yankee as ht
squeezes pure olive oil out Of his cOttoI
seed against any down easter that evel
swapped wooden nutmegs for fianne
sausage in the valleys of Vermont
Above all, we know that we have
achieved in these piping times o
peace fuller independence THAI
when our fathers sought TO win in th,
forum by their eloquence or compel or
F the field by their swords. Loud ap
plause].
''lt is rare privilege, sir. to hav,
had part however humble in this work
Never was nobler duty cDntided to hu
man hands than the uplifting aud up
building Of the PROSTATE and bleedin,
south, misguided, perhaps, but beauti
. full in her suffering and honest, brav,
and generous always. Applause]. II
| the record OF her social, industrial ant
, political illustration we await with con
, tidence the verdict of the world.
I "But what OF the negro? Have W
| solved the problem he presents or pro
, gressed in honor and equity toward it
: solution? Let the record speak to tn
: point. No section shows a more pros
, porous laboring population than tn
r negroes of the south, none in fulle
{. sympathy with the employing AM
I land owning class. He shares on
r school fund, has the fullest protection
: Of our laws and the friendship of ou
r people. Self-interest as we'll as homo
= demands that he should have this. Ou
future, our very existence. depends up
on our working ont this problem in flu
!, and exact justice. The relations of tn
: southern people with the negro ar
!. close and cordial. We remember wit
Q what fidelity for four years he gusrde
g our defenseless women and children
Q whose husbands and fathers were figh
Q ing against his liberty. To his etern,
g credit be 1t said that whenever he struc
8 blow for his liberty he fought in ope
0 battle, and when at last he raised b
g black and humble hand that the shack
J les might be struck off, those hanC
Ii were innocent of wrong against h
= helpless charges, and worthy to b
u taken in loving grasp by every ina
. who honors loyalty and devotion.
g "But have we kept faith with yor
If In the fullest sense, yes. When Lee su
rendered. don't say when Johnsto
n surrendered, because understand
II still alludes to the time when he M
[s General Sherman last, as the time whe
10 he determined to abandon any furth'
Al prosecution of the struggle-when Ii
2 surrendered, l say, and Johnston Qui
1t the south became, and has been sine
r loyal to the union. We fought hal
le enough to know that we were whiI
ID ped, and in perfect frsnkness accepte
7. as final the arbitrament of the sword
ct which we had appealed.
Is The south found her jewel in toad
h head. The shackles that had held b.
l. in narrow limitations fell forever whs
30 the shsckles of The negro slaves we
y broken. Applause Under the o
ii regime the negroes were slaves to Il
D. south, the south was slave to the sy
r tenn Thus was gathered In the hands
aspiendid,a chivalric oligarchy the su
ii tenance that should have be-
m diffused among the people, as t
s. rich blood is gathered at the hea
II, filling it with aftluent rapture b
be leaving the body chill and colorlea
a rApplausel The new south
st enamored OF her new work Her SO
w is stirred with the breath of a new Iii
9u The light OF grander day is falli
1t fair on her face. She is thrilling, g
SIX with the consciousness of grown
an power and prosperity. AS she stan
in full statured and equal among the pc
ch pie of the earth, breathing the keen
of and looking out upon all expand
ce horizon, she understands that h
Il, emancipation came because in the /
alf scrutable wisdom of God her hon,
by purpose was crossed and her bra
x armies were beaten. lApplause.] I'll